A committed Hammers fan, Mott has been managing money for more than 35 years, spanning roles at Credit Suisse and latterly PSigma Asset Management and Miton. He’s collected a fair few accolades in that time (unlike West Ham), having built up a reputation for sticking with his convictions.
According to Hargreaves Lansdown, since 1986, Mott has returned 846%, compared with 457% from the IMA UK Equity Income sector and 403% from the FTSE All-Share. In other words he has returned 1.88x as much as the index.
The big call
A particular success was his call to sell Vodafone and other TMT stocks in March 2000, just before dotcom bubble burst.
“I watched from a distance the tech boom and like a lot of experienced fund managers at the time I couldn’t make sense of it,” Mott remembers today.
“I said to [then MD] Ian Chimes at the time ‘this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a big call if we are brave enough to do it. Growth stocks are outrageously overvalued’.
“We ditched all the growth stocks, and the portfolio was loaded in real-world cheap value stocks, which I thought would be the next big dynamic of the market.”
Gary Potter, co-head of multi-manager at F&C Investments, says: “At the time he was criticised for having sold Vodafone, a stock which people thought was going to get ever bigger and become more important to the world and it went down the tube. He was spot on and that will be his legacy – saving people money as well as making it.
“What sets Bill apart is his passion, his conviction, and his simplicity and he’s one of those people that you always look to for clarity of thought.”
While his long-term record is enviable, Mott’s performance in recent years has been less than stellar. Since launch in April 2007, PSigma Income has grown by 22.5% compared with 31.1% for the average fund in the IMA UK Equity Income Sector and 41.2% for the FTSE All Share Index.
Still, Mott is convinced he has made the right decision to retire – at the end of this year – with Eric Moore and Gervais Williams set to take over the fund.
“The City has become more driven by short-term performance, and people are now much more aware of indices and are more concerned about short-term underperformance,” he concludes.
Style council
“I think because of central bank interference, investors may have become a bit more blasé to the risks that are involved. What also has become clear to me is that there are certain investment styles are attractive and then they go through periods when you apply the same principles as you have always done and you don’t have the same success.
"You just have to be aware in those times to stick what you believe in rather than to follow fashion.”
A bit like being a West Ham fan then, Bill.
